Lately, I’ve been doing everything in my power to use up my garden vegetables.
Over the past week I’ve been enjoying Roasted Tomato Basil Pesto, Long Weekend Grilled Salad, Kale Chips, cucumbers and hummus, Weekend Glow Kale Salad, and Chocolate Chip Cookies. To balance out the vegetables of course.
This end of season bounty reminds me of the organic Plan B CSA that we had last summer. There is so much produce to use up!
I even started gathering “bouquets” of kale and giving it away to friends and neighbors as I beam with pride, “I brought this for you!”
“Oh, you shouldn’t have….really you shouldn’t have.”
I think I might be starting to lose friends.
We’ve been getting a lot of wet and humid weather lately and I realized if I leave the peppers on the plant too long the inside starts to grow mold. Never a good thing to discover when you slice one open!
I knew that I had to use up these beautiful peppers…or bust.
And because I seem to be obsessed with roasting and grilling things lately, I decided to roast my peppers. Roasting is a great way to “condense” a large amount of vegetables. Kale chips, I’m looking at you!
How To Roast Peppers
Ever roasted peppers before? I used to be scared to try because I thought it was really difficult. You want me to PEEL the skin off? How in the world…?
Turns out, it’s so easy Sketchie could do it! Although, he does have really long claws…
1. Start by preheating the broil setting on your oven (I used heat setting 4 out of a possible range of 5) and move the rack up to the top or second highest spot. Line a large baking sheet with tinfoil.
2. With a paring knife, carefully slice a circle around the top of the pepper. You can use any type of pepper you prefer! I used bell peppers and banana peppers, as that’s what I grew in my garden.
Discard the inner flesh and seeds as best as you can.
3. With the cut side down, slice down the middle of the pepper, creating two halves.
Like so. Remove rest of seeds.
4. With your hand, SQUASH each piece! Whee!
I’m sorry for this picture, I really am. I’m a one woman show, clearly.
Squashed!
5. Place all the flattened pieces onto your baking sheet. I roasted about 6 small peppers, but if using large ones, you could probably use 3?
P.S.- This baking sheet should be lined with tin foil not parchment– I changed this after I took the photo.
6. Broil for about 10-13 minutes, until blackened. My peppers were in there about 12-13 minutes at broil setting 4.
7. This is where your tin foil comes in handy! Carefully wrap up the peppers with the tin foil and let it steam for about 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile, you can prepare your hummus ingredients.
8. After 15-20 mins, gently peel off the blackened skin. This is why it’s important to really blacken your peppers; the more black the skin gets the easier it is to peel away. It really does come off easy.
Your discard pile on the left and your delicious roasted peppers on the right:
Now it’s time to make delicious, creamy roasted red pepper hummus. It’s just what you do!
Featuring all new, protein-packed salads, hearty toppers, flavour boosters, and dressings you'll want to drink, my new cookbook will transform the way you think about salads. Oh, and be sure to flip to the back for a surprise dessert chapter!
Ultra Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Hummus
Yield
2 cups
Prep time
Cook time
0 minutes
Total time
This is one of the creamiest hummus recipes that has ever come out of my processor! It has a light sweetness with a lovely roasted flavour thanks to the roasted red peppers.
Ingredients
- 1 garlic clove
- One 14-ounce/400ml can chickpeas (about 1 1/2 cups cooked)
- 3/4 cup roasted red peppers
- 1/4 cup tahini
- 5 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, or to taste
- 2 tablespoons reserved chickpea brine (or water)
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt, or to taste
- 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, to taste
- Extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
- Smoked paprika, for garnish
Directions
- Open the can of chickpeas and spoon off 2 tablespoons of the brine (liquid). Reserve this for the recipe. Now, drain the rest of the can and rinse the chickpeas well.
- Add the garlic clove into a food processor and process until finely chopped.
- Add the drained chickpeas, roasted red peppers, tahini, lemon juice, and reserved chickpea brine into the food processor. Process until the hummus is silky smooth. Scrape down as necessary.
- Now add in salt and cayenne, to taste, and process again until combined.
- Scoop into a bowl and drizzle with olive oil and garnish with paprika. This hummus will last about 4-5 days in the fridge in a sealed container.
Thanks to the delicious roasted peppers, this is the creamiest and silkiest hummus to come out of my processor!
I couldn’t get over how smooth it became once I put the roasted peppers in. It was as if I added a half cup of oil, only I didn’t. Yeehaw.
This counts as lunch, right?
Hi, Angela
Can I ask you a gardening question? I just started gardening this year. For my summer veggies I started with transplants but for the fall I’m starting from scratch with seeds. I have a little greenhouse filled with pellets that will turn into individual plants for me to transfer. (They’re sprouting already!) I have things like kale, beets, snap peas, arugula, spinach, broccoli, etc. My question is how many seeds does it take to grow one plant?? I can’t find this info anywhere. I just took a guess and planted about 5 of the teeny tiny kale seeds per pellet, about 3 of the larger snap pea seeds per pellet and about 2-3 for the beets. How the heck am I supposed to know how many seeds it takes to make one plant? I’m just totally guessing here.
thanks!
Hmm good question! When I planted seeds (like for my carrots) I just read the spacing requirements on the back of the package or in my gardening book (the low maintenance garden). It usually said 1) how deep to plant the seeds, and 2) how far apart they should be. I guess for pellets it would be more difficult to figure out (I planted straight into the bed), but maybe someone else can help you out here!
Yeah I can totally find how far apart you should space them and how deep they should go but not how much 1 seed will give you. for example for your carrots did you plant one teeny tiny seed then another seed 3 inches away from it or did you drop in several seeds and 3 inches further you dropped another few seeds…I guess what I’m saying is–if we’re using carrots as an example, will one tiny carrot seed yield a bunchful of carrots? I know I sound extremely ocd about this LOL! but it’s all new to me. I need to befriend a farmer :-S
oops I forgot to answer that part of the Q! lol.
Yes I would plant just 1 seed, although that was hard to do as the seeds are SO tiny! Sometimes I ended up dropping 2-3 in the same spot by mistake. Seemed to turn out ok for the carrots…the beets never came up though (I thought they did but it was a weed!)
Thank you so much! Isn’t it amazing that food starts so small?? You can pay like a dollar for a bazillion seeds instead of spending all that money at the grocery store. Looks like I’m gonna have quite a harvest for my balcony box with all the seeds I dropped in. ;-)
haha yea that’s what I said when I planted them! I’m sure you will do great. And what doesn’t work out is usually a lesson learned. Although not in the case with my beets… ;)
I just bought some roasted red peppers for the convenience but I’ll definitely look for some on sale and try my hand at roasting them myself! Roasted red pepper hummus is one of my favorite things, and I also love adding them to salads or sandwiches for an oomph of flavor :)
Feel free to send some of your extra produce my way, Angela. :)
This hummus looks fantastic! I may have to pull out my food processor today. Your original hummus is one of my go-to recipes already.
Angela-
I made the Roasted Tomato and Basil Pesto last night and the roasted tomatoes were the best thing ever!
I was wondering if it would work to use roasted tomatoes to make hummus as a substitute for the peppers? If not I’ll def be making the red pepper hummus next week!
Thanks,
Adriane
I was wondering the same thing! I think the roasted tomatoes would make the hummus more watery. You could try adding a bit at a time, or maybe Google some roasted tomato hummus recipes to see how others did it. Good luck!
When I googled it I found a few, but I didn’t see any mention of doing anything different to avoid the excess water from the tomatoes. I may try doing it and just dicing the tomatoes after roasting them to squeeze out the water and patting them dry with a paper towel.
Totally counts as lunch. Holy yum!
LOVE the roasted red peppers. They look so beautiful with the char on them – and you can’t beat them as a flavoring for hummus!
heck yes that counts as lunch! I posted s very similar recipe a while back and it was some of the tastiest hummus I’ve ever had. Sweet and smokey from the peppers.
And you would not lose me as a friend if you brought me kale! I’ve been eating it by the pound this past week, sauteed with garlic and onions, its SO delicious I can’t seem to get enough of it.
I love red peppers, I’m just not a fan of them roasted, no idea why. Though I do love red pepper hummus!
Yum! I just bought a food processor and I need to christen it with some hummus! I love roasted red peppers, looks like this could be a winner.
If you brought me bouquets of kale, I would love you for it. Your neighbours are crazy. (Bunches of organic kale will run you $3 to $4 here in Vancouver! And conventional will still cost about $2 for a small bunch.)
I’ve always been afraid of roasting red peppers, too, for… no reason. I guess the unknown always seems “scary” or, at the very least, intimidating! But red pepper hummus was the first type of hummus I ever tried… so I’ll definitely have to give this a go. I never knew that you had to squash the peppers!
I’d be your BEST friend if you showed up with kale… mmmmmmmmmm kale!
Looks awesome! I love roasted peppers!!
“Roastedness” = totally a word :P
This looks great, and I love that it’s not too heavy on the tahini.
i love how u show every step in the pictures. i’ve been married for 4 years and have a 3 year old. we’ve been really unhealthy in our lives. i’m looking for a change and have to admit… i don’t even know the basics, like roasting peppers. i’d love to see more articles on basics…. like a serious how to basics. my husband brought home a zucchini the other day and we just looked at it. i have no idea what to do with veggies. i’m at a loss! <3<3<3 ur very inspiring!
Thanks for the suggestion! I actually hope to do many more ‘how-to’ posts!
Thank you for the fabulous step by step on how to roast peppers! I have been wanting to roast peppers for the longest time but was so scared I would mess it up!
And that hummus looks to dye for!
Oh it totally counts as a lunch. I love the step by step on roasting peppers. Honestly, I’ve never tried it!
I love roasted peppers but I’ve never made my own — they look pretty simple (and fun) to make!
I would LOVE it if someone showed up at my door with a bouquet of kale!
Can’t wait to try the recipe – and thanks for the roasting tips! I’ve been scared to roast my own peppers but will definitely try it now.
Hummus is the best! This sounds so good. I think I’ll go make it for lunch! Thanks!
I love roasted red peppers! I’ve never made them but my mother does it by using the flame on the stove-top!
normally ive only seen pepper roasting over the stove to get that nice flame char but i really love your method and clearly it works just as well! Such a beautiful hummus- the best hummus is always homemade :)
xoxo <3